Hulu AMA Highlights: 60 FPS, 5.1 Audio, Android TV, & More

This week Hulu held an AMA on /r/Hulu and gave us a look at their future plans.

60 FPS

One of the main requests we get from readers about Hulu’s new live TV service is the question of 60 FPS. Standard TV on most services streams at 30 frames per second (FPS). Sports on a growing number of services streams at 60 FPS for a better, smoother experience for fast-moving action like sports.

The good news is Hulu is testing out 60 FPS. “As a sports guy, I don’t love it either. We are currently evaluating 60 FPS performance on CNN and TBS (on Xbox One, Fire TV, Apple TV, and iOS). Looking to roll out these networks and more very soon. If you haven’t tried it already, check out beta.hulu.com –I spent every Saturday this fall watching two-three college football games at once,” said Ben Smith SVP at Hulu.

PBS

We also get asked a lot about PBS. It looks like you will have to wait. “No plans to add PBS right now. Would love to know if there are specific shows that you think should be on Hulu?” said Smith.

5.1 Audio

One more request many want is a live TV streaming service with 5.1 audio. Smith answered, “We are currently prioritizing quality and robustness of video playback right now but 5.1 is definitely coming.”

Android TV

While it looks like Hulu’s live TV service is not coming to Android TV right now, Hulu explained why. “We don’t have current plans to support Android TV. It is one of the platforms that we are constantly evaluating. For us, it is a combination of the number of Hulu viewers on the platform and the technical complexity of supporting the platform,” said Smith.

Buffering

Hulu was asked several times about buffering with Hulu’s live TV service. In response to the questions, Smith said, “It is our top priority right now.”

There you go. Some of the highlights from this week’s AMA. If you would like to read the full AMA you can find it HERE.

I also call Bullshit on his excuse for no Android TV app!
If you develop and app for the FireTV, it does not require a massive rewrite for the app to run on Android TV. Everyone seems to forget that the core OS of the FireTV is Android.

[–]WarpSevenHulu Classic[M] 3 points 1 day ago*
This question is also from /u/Talrynn_Sorrowyn who was not able to attend today and sent this in via Moderator Mail (And I would like to know when MASH arrives as well):

In regards to the deal struck between Hulu & FOX last summer for ~3,000 episodes’ worth of content: I and a number of users are curious what is going on with Hulu getting MASH into the catalogue. Has the recent takeover of FOX by Disney resulted in a pause in that rollout, or has Disney completely killed that deal?

Thanks!

Edit: I can’t remember the right formatting for * in a word.

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[–]HuluBenOfficial Account[S] 3 points 1 day ago
Still coming. We’re working with Fox, but no date to announce.

Does HULU thinks everyone is a children or something? How much work does it take to make an Android TV app if you already have a Fire TV app? You just have to change the Amazon services with Google services and all the other code can be keep unchanged. Fire OS is based on Android.

Then how is Sling TV, Fubo TV and PS Vue on the Android TV Play Store?? If Google was blocking them it would have became a big news.
Google wants more content in their TV platforms, that’s ehy they blocked Youtube on Fire TV as long as Amazon doesn’t add Chromecast and Android TV (Universal) supportb on their Prime Video app, Youtube won’t be coming back.

The normal HULU app for Android TV has a Install number of 500,000 – 1,000,000 according to Google Play, so Android TV doesn’t have users is also a BS.

And the reason DirecTV Now is not on Android TV because AT&T is launching their own Android TV device pretty soon. (It’s waiting for FCC’s approval)

How the hell do they know how many Hulu viewers are on the Android TV platform if they don’t release an app on the best streaming box on the platform?

I, for one, had been waiting the better part of a year for it to come to Android TV so that I could make the switch. Now, screw them, I’ll stick with YouTube tv. And FYI, I am a former Hulu subscriber, but that is a completely different service from live TV.

This is the one AMA I’m so disappointed to have missed. I would ask why they released Roku channel obviously still a beta version of the “new Hulu exasperation” ere experience.

Why they are ignoring the feedback posted on the Hulu help and feedback webpages with over 10K user’s and with users still complaining on a daily basis about the royal F.*.BAR UI and Roku channel launched in buggy beta last September.

Why the simplest task on HULU requires thumb gymnastics and multiple button pushes to navigate to movie and shows that still have truncated and partial summaries, that its impossible to simply relax and follow shows that we we pay for VOD rather than simply watching them with with a DVR and a OTA anntena.

Why Hulu has horrible page lags and then starts you back at the top after you have paged down (and waited for the lag) you hit back after reading a truncated summary of a movie or a series, then hit back and rather than returing to the page with the item you just clicked to learn more about the back arrow send you to the top of the page rather than the previous page spot.

Why Hulu’s UI with static pages lag so horrible (Psst UI coding is rubbish and a resource hog), and the fluid mini trailers one sees on Netflix which BTW have no lag. I used to love Hulu, I was an early beta tester back in 2006, even didn’t mind when they from free to paid, even their orginal Hulu desktop beta (defunct) from 2008-2009 era was better than the new Roku channels UI and UE. User Experience is an EPIC fail.

Why bury the most important thing user actually care about, something that Amazon, Netflix and Hulu’s old interface understood very well, the very first menu you see when you load the channel/app: your watch list (aka ‘my stuff’ parlance of the Hulu coders universe) or continue watching (last show/episode).

Why does Hulu beta ask me to select a profile if there is only one Profile to choose from? Seriously who kidnapped the old Hulu UI coders?

Hulu wants $12 a month for all hassles when you simply want to relax not to get a workout from doing thumb gymnastics to find and keep up with the network series episodes, rather instead they choose to constantly annoy us suggesting shows that we have Zero interest in (seriously if I have ZERO sitcoms in “my watch list” aka “my stuff” why the incessant suggestions; once upon a time you could state you have no interest in a show even though the Amazon Channel is a bit long in the tooth, it still offers a Not interested button and like Netflix menus are side scrolling and provide summaries quick and easy.

While Hulu is supposed to have some 2,500 hours (or is it movies or shows) of SVOD content, its sure not easy to find or locate or even seem to be available from the new Hulu experience UI perhaps it’s only from a browser or searching if you know the title and its available in the Hulu library, I really don’t want to pay $12 a month to watch the old Hulu on our HTPC so I can still navigate without the “new Hulu exasperation” honestly it’s $8 a month less than a Sling subscription (but I will say I have never tried Sling, but after 11 years of using Hulu its worse than Vista OS system and EOL of XP, or Win 8 Metro after Win 7, (yes I run Win 10 but I uninstalled the Hulu app when I tried it and experinced the new Hulu experience prior to the Roku channel update last fall.

I had planned on upgrading to Hulu’s live TV, but that is the real reason we have the horrible UI everywhere is it is the only way it (LiveTV) is supported across all the platforms.

I understand that is also has to do partially with Roku requirement with rolling out UI channel requirements, but it is still no excuse for poor coding and horrible lag. If they would simply offer a Legacy Hulu channel app for those that no longer care or desire for Live tv or simply miss the straight forward, easy to use and debug’d UI, it would make a lot of people happy, but judging from the 10k people that have taken the time to give feedback the Hulu website (and you have to have an account to post) and that its not even an issue being considered or reviewed, how many more are simply canceling Hulu?

Now that Comcast/Fox/NBC are being bought out by Disney they probably don’t even care, and I’m sure Disney cares more about a turnkey SVOD platform, and the Hulu SVOD will probably become the redheaded stepchild, but just like Hulu doesn’t listen to Customers (gee lets look at one if the parent conpanies…Comcast hmm that makes a lot of sense as one if the most hated corporations in America and they aren’t even rated higher than the banksters ). I sold my Comcast stock years ago now I’m ready to sell my Roku stock now.

I know Hulu’s subscriber number are supposed to have jumped from 12M (2016) to 17M most recent as of last quarter 2017 if I recall correctly) but didn’t they also run a promo for 12 months @$5.99 for new subs, just months prior to selling to Diseny? I think that is about the number of subs Netflix add in one quarter last year, but their user base is also outside of the US.

Even if T-mobile hadn’t recently picked up most of the tab for a 4 user subscription, (I now love T-Mobile after switching the family back last June from post-paid plans with Verizon – example of a Cell phone company with great customer service – an oxymoron I know while YMMV they are the highest and fastest rated for CS and speed by Open signal and others). I digress, Hulu charges $12 a month for one User and you can’t watch 4K shows period, but seriously $40 if you want more than one family member to be able watch Hulu at the same time, insanity.

So 5 million new subs increase over 18-24mo (how many are people churning vs actual new user’s?) What is the attrition rate, (how high will it go with this infernal UI?) how many are from the recent $5.99 loss-leader and now that Disney’s buying them it seems like they honestly don’t care— Comcast’s trickle down customer service model? (19 yrs of HSI service from 1Mbps AT&[email protected] HSI to Xfinity Comcast 250Mbps – was going to upgrade to the 1G service till they rolled out the 1TB useage caps a few months ahead of rolling out the 1Gbps service, but just found from my Neighbor that they can get 1G u/d from CL (a crap shoot in the CS game but 1Gbps $85 for life an no data useage caps, my 1 year Comcast HSI package contract is expiring soon….).

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